The proposed federal economic stimulus package has ballooned to more than $900 billion as it is being debated in the U.S. Senate this week. The U.S. House last week passed its version of a stimulus bill that carried an $819 billion price tag.
The stimulus plan being touted by President Barack Obama has a goal of creating 3-4 million jobs nationwide over the next two years, nearly 286,000 of which would be in Texas. This week, the president said the plan will deliver "immediate, tangible impacts," and outlined the impact his plan would have on Texas.
In addition to creating nearly 286,000 jobs in Texas, the White House reports that the plan would:
- Provide a work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for more than 8.1 million Texas workers and their families.
- Provide eligibility for 346,000 Texas families in the new American Opportunity Tax Credit to help make college affordable by creating a new $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college for some 346,000 Texas families.
- Provide an additional $100 per month in unemployment benefits to 677,000 Texans who have lost their jobs during the current recession and extend unemployment benefits for an additional 125,000 Texans who have been laid off from their jobs.
- Provide adequate funding for the modernization to 21st century classrooms, laboratories and libraries in nearly 1,000 Texas public schools.
- Provide funding for Texas and the remainder of the states for the largest investment increase in the country's roads, bridges and mass transit systems since the creation of the national highway system in the 1950s.
Obama has urged quick passage of the act so that more American businesses do not close and more Americans do not lose their jobs.
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